Samsung and LG Reportedly Exploring Sapphire Crystal Displays

[MacRumors]

Apple is leading the way in the adoption of sapphire, with the company producing the material in limited quantities in its new Arizona plant. A portion of this material is expected to land in the iPhone 6 and possibly the iWatch as a scratch-resistant display material. According to Korean media reports (via GforGames), both Samsung and LG are showing renewed interest in sapphire following Apple's early success in manufacturing the material.

Furnaces for sapphire glass production​

LG and Samsung allegedly explored the feasibility of using sapphire in their phones last year, but rejected the material due to the high cost of production. Now that Apple is moving forward with the material, Samsung and LG are reevaluating their earlier decisions, reaching out to sapphire glass manufacturers and requesting product samples for examination.

This year however, the aforementioned Korean tech giants might be forced by the industry to reconsider their decision. With numerous other gadget manufacturers putting a lot of thought into making sapphire glass feasible, and with Apple already operating the sapphire glass processing plant in US, Arizona, LG and Samsung are supposedly going to jump on the sapphire display bandwagon sooner rather than later.

Sapphire may be a critical component of Apple's rumored iWatch, providing an outer scratch-resistant layer to the wrist-worn device. Recent rumors also suggest Apple may incorporate a sapphire crystal display into its upcoming iPhone 6. A recent research note from KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo suggests the initial supply of sapphire displays could be limited, forcing Apple to use the material only in select high-end models of the upcoming handset.

Article Link: Samsung and LG Reportedly Exploring Sapphire Crystal Displays

 

[SilverL]

Filed under: Copying. Apple. See previous attempts.

At least someone acknowledges Apple is an innovator.

 

[newyorksole]

Lmaooo of course they are !

 

[moetownslick]

Isn't this getting a bit ridiculous, Samsung?

 

[moeafg]

Mr Gorilla Glass won't like this

 

[furi0usbee]

Samsung? No way. I don't believe it. Samsung is a pioneer in the tech industry and I'm sure they are looking at skipping sapphire and moving straight to diamond screens. I'm sure of it. It's diamond clear to me.

 

[1Zach1]

Apple isn't really "leading the way" until they produce a product with it, right?

 

[D.T.]

Samsung and LG exploring idea of developing ultra-thin, solid state storage, aluminum notebook computers running new operating system called OSZ.

 

[gnasher729]

Apple isn't really "leading the way" until they produce a product with it, right?

Wrong. It's called "leading the way", not "arriving first". For "being the first to use sapphire crystal displays in a phone", they'd have to produce a product. "Leading the way" means "being followed". If some luxury phone maker built some thousand phones with sapphire crystal before Apple, they would be first, but if they are not followed then it would still be Apple "leading the way".

 

[kagharaht]

Monkey see, monkey do.

 

[jmpage2]

I'm still highly skeptical that the AZ plants are going to be able to crank out pristine 4.7" and 5.5" sapphire displays in the massive volumes needed by Apple for the iPhone 6.

I expect that the first product we will see this used in is the iWatch with the sapphire glass being a major upgrade motivator for the 6S... the "S" in 6S will stand for sapphire.

Remember that tech pundits were convinced that liquid-metal would be used for iPhone frames in the 1-2 years following Apple's acquisition of that technology, and it still has not happened over 4 years later.

 

[TimWillz]

What. A. Surprise.

 

[keysofanxiety]

MacRumours, you always post graphs of how many people running iOS 7.x visit your website. Which got me thinking ... how much of your web traffic/hits come from Korea?

 

[Karma*Police]

Frankly, I'm surprised it took them this long considering these rumors were substantiated months ago by Tim Cook himself.

 

[b3ats]

In other news, Samsung are also reportedly designing a Sapphire Ring after Tim Cook told the world that Apple were designing one.

 

[SethBoy]

“We, as a market leader, are following the market trend.” — Samsung

 

[iSteve-O]

In other news...Apple is also leading the way to becoming the #2 Most Valuable Brand.

It's time to sue Google for the #1 spot

 

[kafka33]

"Apple is leading the way in the adoption of sapphire"
Are you for real ?? Apple is NOT LEADING NOTHING !
The ONLY thing Apple are leading is it's own OS : iOS.. Nothing else..

 

[Cyborg21]

I must congratulate Samsung for their business strategy. 1) Copy 2) Bash company you copied 3) Pay money to all media to get rid of ''Samsung is a copycat'' news 4) Make people believe you are best and original 5) When you sued, bash company again 6) Make lawsuit happen as late as possible 7) Counter-sue 8) Repeat the cycle

Isn't it right? It's pretty obvious Samsung copies Apple and some other companies and there are still some people believing Samsung is original and Apple's lawsuit is baloney.


edit:

"Apple is leading the way in the adoption of sapphire"
Are you for real ?? Apple is NOT LEADING NOTHING !
The ONLY thing Apple are leading is it's own OS : iOS.. Nothing else..

See?

 

[Cyborg21]

.

 

[Rogifan]

Isn't this getting a bit ridiculous, Samsung?

And apparently they're releasing a VR headset later this year.

 

[S2TPW]

Finished....

Have to say I'm done with Samsung. I find the continual stream of credibility exposures has turned me off them completely, not just competitive phones etc. but any device. I just move on now.

For such a clearly capable and innovative company they seem to lack fundamental ethics in their business model. In today's world you're going to get exposed, and that means lost opportunity with folks like me....

It makes perfect sense for them to compete and some technologies will be the same, but I'm genuinely ambivalent now, irrespective of achievement.

 

[dabirdwell]

Sapphire is NOT glass. The use of the term "sapphire glass," makes me crazy, and shows how little supposed experts know of materials science. It is absolutely not interchangeable with "sapphire crystal."

 

[HobeSoundDarryl]

I expect that the first product we will see this used in is the iWatch with the sapphire glass being a major upgrade motivator for the 6S... the "S" in 6S will stand for sapphire.

What is that big benefit that makes it a "major upgrade motivator"? This is an invisible feature, meaning one won't be able to tell whether it's a sapphire or glass screen (they'll look the same), so the "must have the latest & greatest" crowd wanting some tangible change that will help others notice a difference won't get fed by sapphire over glass.

Sapphire is harder and that will make it less likely to scratch. However, there's so few comments about people scratching their iPhones now. The big gripe is shattered screens for which sapphire will do no better.

So what is the upgrade motivational benefit?

 

[JPLC]

Remember the Palm? Or Blackberry? Plastic displays are out of fashion and the quality standard has moved to high end. Those credits go to Apple imo. We are lucky to have Apple as an inovator in this mobile market. Without it, we stil would polish our plastic screens on expensive phones.